Always on support feature integration for ApexSQL

Project overview

To keep the SQL Server system highly stable and protected, new features and updates are released over time. Some major updates replace or serve as alternatives to older capabilities. For instance, the AlwaysOn feature came as an enterprise-grade alternative to database mirroring. The default support of Always On by the ApexSQL system was what we set out to integrate for the client.

Client ApexSQL

Team 5 members

Country United States of America

Duration 6 months

Client information

The client is an established provider of SQL Server solutions for the most various purposes – ApexSQL. Specialists of ApexSQL implement high-quality solutions for giants, such as Intel, NASA, Bank of America, and many more. Since recently, the company has been operating under the wing of Quest, an even bigger software provider that decided to invest in ApexSQL and make it a subsidiary.

Business challenge

Businesses that operate in the digital realm rely heavily on software and, in particular, online technologies. SQL Server is the most widely used database management system for keeping business data intact up to date. That’s why it should be maintained properly. Namely, standard systems should be expanded and kept updated to meet the custom requirements of particular companies. New efficient features must be implemented timely.

Technical challenges

Ultimately, we needed to integrate AlwaysOn support for the ApexSQL Audit system with the existing support for Failover Cluster Instances. For that, we had to dive into the system’s code head to toe, integrate new custom libraries, and enable the existing system to audit AlwaysOn clusters. Other major tasks included building a new setup, conducting a clean installation and upgrading from the previous versions, deploying the new feature, and conducting unit testing.

Solution delivered

AlwaysOn support for ApexSQL Audit enables the client’s system to audit clustered instances of the AlwaysOn SQL Server. AlwaysOn AG detects newly added nodes to be audited and applies the related settings. Server-level auditing settings for SQL Server instances are first adjusted on the AlwaysOn AG level and are automatically applied to all SQL Server instances.

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Key features

Individual auditing

Working with the ApexSQL Audit expanded with the AlwaysOn support, a specialist can choose specific sets of availability databases to be audited for more precise work.

Custom settings

For each chosen availability database set, auditing settings can be customized individually to pinpoint particular data sets.

One-time events capture

Mirroring operations between primary and secondary replicas should no longer be collected by default – instead, events are captured once and stored in the central repository to speed things up.

Value to our client

Local data storingAlwaysOn excludes the necessity of shared storage, which frequently acts as a common point of possible failures.

Adjustable failoverEither automatic or manual failover can be set for AlwaysOn groups, which provides ultimately more data management flexibility.

Boosted performanceMany resource-consuming operations can be offloaded thanks to the new features, increasing the overall performance of the system.

Our tech stack

Visual Studio

.NET/ASP.NET